Creativity at TV Hack Day 2015

9/29/2015 FYI Television 0 comments
TV Hack Day 2015
In Berlin, Germany, the 26th and 27th of September this past weekend were collectively known as “TV Hack Day,” or as the event describes itself:

“24 Hours of pure creativity, focused on innovation in the online video space in order to create something that has never existed before. For creatives, tinkerers, inventors, tech geeks, storytellers, design junkies and strategists alike!”

(For our coverage of this event last year, see here)

APIs and devices from companies like Tagesschau, Mozilla, IRT, Metrological and RBB were provided to attendees, who then developed innovative apps and software for television integration.

Here’s a look at the breakthrough contenders.

Jury winner: Wobbla

Wobbla analyzes subtitle metadata to create a pulsating word cloud of selectable hot topics on the TV. This allows a viewer to discover new content and related programs with its easily navigable interface.

Wobbla can also work as a ‘screensaver’ when the television is not in use.




Audience Choice winner: Monster Pet Store

Monster Pet Store is an interactive app for kids that serves as a “theater on the TV screen.” By utilizing an app on one’s mobile device, the user can manipulate four monsters that appear on the television in order to create a visual storytelling experience. The characters can be moved around to demonstrate a narrative.




Fagesschau

Fagesschau is an Apple TV app that ‘curates and aggregates’ information and video content that is served up in a personalized way to the user.

It can be controlled by voice if desired.




Tattle.tv

Tattle.tv is an attempt to ‘make boring television more interesting’ with viewer interaction. In the team’s demonstration, a politician’s speech is shown on TV; by using a mobile app, a viewer can chat with their friends about what they’re watching, which is then displayed on screen.

The chat system supports speech-to-text, voting and emoticons. Additionally, face-detection functionality identifies the politician, allowing the viewer to learn more about them.




FEEDY

FEEDY is an app for viewing various social media feeds on multiple devices. Often, video content can bog down one’s stream of updates. FEEDY lets the user scroll through their feed without videos, and then select individual items for further examination and inspection while projected on the television screen.




Journalism Taken to the Streets

Journalism Taken to the Streets self-defines as “Current news mixed with poetry, philosophy and musicality.”
Existing news is summarized and presented in a new context, performed live in front of an audience, which encourages a face-to-face dialogue.




GRIWS

GRIWS presents traditional news clips to the viewer in an untraditional way. Relevant topics from multiple sources are aggregated and personalized into a sortable grid; a user can then choose to view video content all related to one subject, or even delve deeper and view multiple videos from one provider.




Author: Brian Cameron

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OTT Platforms Obtain Victory at the 2015 Emmys

9/22/2015 FYI Television 0 comments
2015 Emmy Awards
On Sunday, history was made at the 2015 Emmy Awards in a variety of different ways. For the first time, original series from Over-the-Top (OTT) services other than Netflix received nominations (and wins) in a number of categories. Forty-eight OTT shows in total were nominated.

Amazon Instant Video’s “Transparent” repeated the major success it had at the Golden Globes earlier this year, with Jeffrey Tambor winning the “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series” award, and the show also receiving the Emmy for “Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.”

Creator Jill Soloway describes the show as "part of a movement."

Netflix achieved success with “House of Cards,” winning “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series” and “Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score).”

Uzo Aduba, known for her role as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” won the 2014 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and again triumphed with the 2015 Emmy for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.”

Former “Saturday Night Live” player and star of FOX’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” Andy Samberg hosted the event, opening with a comedic musical number that served as a commentary on just how much television is out there to watch nowadays.



Find the full list of OTT Emmy winners below.

Amazon Instant Video:


*Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent”)

*Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Jill Soloway, “Transparent”)

*Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (Bradley Whitford, “Transparent”)

*Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music (Dustin O'Halloran, “Transparent”)

*Outstanding Costumes for a Contemporary Series, Limited Series, or Movie (“Transparent”)

Netflix:


*Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Uzo Aduba, “Orange is the New Black”)

*Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Reg E. Cathey, “House of Cards”)

*Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) (Jeff Beal, “House of Cards”)

*Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming (Franklin Dow, “Virunga”)

Throughout the year, OTT has been making huge gains and strides in the world of television. A new Nielsen report found that the number of homes with subscription video on-demand services rose 18 percent in Q2 of 2015. To catch up on some recent OTT trends, read more in "OTT Flexes Muscles In Q2 2015" and "The News Pursues an OTT Disruption."

Author: Brian Cameron

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Inspiration from the 2015 IBC Conference

9/17/2015 FYI Television 0 comments
IBC
The IBC Conference was recently held in Amsterdam, from September 10 – 14. Television-related technology inspired record-breaking crowds to attend, with 55,128 checking out the event.

“We have gone from an industry that was defined by technology to one where we demand new functionality from our vendors; from an industry where broadcasters told us what we were going to watch to one where consumers call for content wherever and whenever they want. All that inevitably brings seismic shifts on every level,” said IBC CEO Michael Crimp.

4K and 8K screens made waves – Canon revealed 4K field lenses; Sagemcom displayed 4K UHD set-top boxes; AJA debuted a 4K upconverter; and Japanese broadcaster NHK revealed the world’s first 85” 8K display.

However, not all of the executives appreciated the new high definition sets.

The CTO of the BBC, Matthew Postgate, described himself as “not really interested” in it, while John Honeycutt, Discovery Communications' CTO, claimed “it’s about more than just resolution.”

According to global analyst firm CCS Insight, the key takeaway from IBC is “disruption.”

“We're in a new golden era of TV distribution,” said Paolo Pescatore, Director of Multiplay and Media at CCS Insight. “As pay-TV companies have moved into offering phone and Internet access, leading telecom providers have responded by adding TV to their service bundles, trying to stay competitive in an increasingly congested market. There's no doubt this is an exciting time for media owners, who can now choose from a plethora of ways to distribute their programmes to audiences.”

Below are a few tweets from the event. Videos can be viewed here.





Author: Brian Cameron

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In EPG Descriptions, Neutrality is Crucial

9/03/2015 FYI Television 0 comments
Stay Informed
This is part four in an ongoing series exposing incredible bias in the electronic program guide (EPG) metadata of some data suppliers.

See here for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

A central purpose of an on-screen guide is to provide a fair and neutral summary of television programming – whether it’s a movie or TV show, it deserves an informative synopsis free of the opinion of the person or persons writing it.

Unfortunately, the TV descriptions from one entertainment metadata vendor often seem to include editorializing – and not in a good way. Seen here, as in the previous installments, viewers are provided with negative and absurd reviews of movies in their EPG.

The Lake House

Convoluted romantic fantasy about a lonely doctor (Sandra Bullock) and an architect (Keanu Reeves) who somehow exchange love letters even though they are living two years apart from each other.



Ghost Ship

A salvage-boat crew finds a luxury liner missing since 1962, and it appears to be haunted. Good special effects, confusing cliché-ridden story.



Trouble with the Curve

This inspirational drama follows Gus Lobel…


Material Girls

Spoiled heiresses suddently lose everything and have to fight to reclaim their inheritances in this hilarious comedy.

Elektra

A few good moments in an otherwise bland “Daredevil” follow-up.

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Princess Mia (Anne Hathaway) settles in Genovia, where her grandmother (Julie Andrews) urges her to marry a prince. Lacks the charm of the first movie.



Constantine

A man guides a cop through a world of demons and angels. Stylized but muddled.

The Great Gatsby

Lavish but shallow adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic.



The Family Man

A coldhearted, unmarried businessman (Nicolas Cage) is magically transformed into a suburban working stiff with a wife and kids. Charming performances but schmaltzy.




The above opinionated synopses are entirely unnecessary and at times ridiculous. If an audience member were to scroll through your on-screen guide or browse your Over-the-Top (OTT) application and these disrespectful thoughts appeared, would you consider this to be representative of your brand or business?

Author: Brian Cameron

Image via Shutterstock.
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The Future of TV Remotes

9/01/2015 FYI Television 0 comments
TV Remote
As the definition of the television set and an individual's main viewing screen is constantly in a state of flux and advancement, the tool used to communicate with the TV is also evolving: the remote control.

Recently, inventors and designers have been pursuing new developments with the device, taking the idea of the remote and running with it.



Mind Control TV

U.K. studio This Place and the BBC have constructed a prototype for a remote that manages content on BBC iPlayer – and it works with a brainwave-reading headset. Television programs in the software can be selected by thinking and concentrating.

“You can imagine a world where instead of having to get up from your sofa or reach for your remote, you just think ‘put BBC One on’ when you want to watch TV,” writes BBC Head of Business Development Cyrus Saihan in a blog post. “Our proof-of-concept is only an experiment and just a toe in the water, but it helps our initial understanding of how we might be able to control devices using our brainwaves in the years to come.”



Sideclick

Sideclick is a universal-remote attachment for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google Nexus Player and Roku created by True Bloom LLC. Last month, their Kickstarter project successfully reached $108,667 after requesting $80,000.

The purpose of Sideclick is to eliminate the usage of multiple remotes by providing functions for power, volume, channel changing and sourcing, with the addition of two “bonus buttons” which can all be programmed.

Clipping on to one’s streaming service remote puts all the controls on one handy device.

Sideclick


Sony SRS-LSR100

The Sony SRS-LSR100 is a new TV remote integrated with a speaker scheduled for release in Japan on September 12 for ¥19,980, or around $166.

The concept behind the remote seems to be that a viewer can effectively listen to their TV while elsewhere in their residence.

According to the Sony product page, the device uses “voice zoom” technology to make the sound of peoples’ voices clearer.

SRS-LSR100

“My Remote”

Saudi Arabian inventor Rafat Madani was granted a U.S. patent at the end of July for his biometric TV remote – “My Remote.”

The device uses a fingerprint system that provides parental controls, like the restriction of inappropriate content and viewing time.

“I wanted to create a product that would support parents like me to encourage their children to lead healthier, more sociable lifestyles and also help safeguard their educational and emotional development,” Madani said.



Author: Brian Cameron
Image via Shutterstock.

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